


this one summer

by orphan_account



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Deceit is like Virgil's makeshift mom, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sibling Banter, Virgil and deceit are brothers, also im calling Deceit "Dante" because i can okay, and thats just chapter one, mostly Virgil is just angsty, thats my headcanon name for him, the story is much better than the summary trust me, they act like they dont like each other but they do
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-25 23:22:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19755850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: to say that virgil and his older brother dante have had a hard life would be an understatement. but when a chance to move on and start anew comes up, dante is ecstatic while virgil could be less than thrilled to completely start again in a new town living next to four rowdy teenagers who have a habit of dragging him into their adventures.





	this one summer

“I’m willing to start over if you are.”

Virgil blinked, only just realizing how much his eyes hurt. He blinked until the pain stopped and turned to the source of the voice.

“Hm?” Virgil lazily answered, a little groggy, he must have been zoning out and almost fell asleep in the process.

He noticed that music no longer played through his headphones, and there was complete silence in the car. Virgil opted to pull his headphones off his ears and place them around his neck.

The source of the voice side eyed Virgil, yet still kept his attention to the road and sighed. 

“You weren’t listening were you?” 

“Not one bit,” Virgil deadpanned.

The voice, Virgil’s brother Dante, grinned in response. He had a playful sparkle in his eye but it was only met with Virgil’s unamused stare. 

“Well, since you completely ignored my dramatic speech, I guess that makes things a lot less fun.” 

“Sorry to spoil your fun, Dee...” Virgil murmured, gripping his headphones, about to put them back over his ears.

Dante’s grin fell slowly, there was a look in his eyes that Virgil couldn’t exactly decipher. “I was being sarcastic, I know you zone out sometimes.”

“Whatever,” Virgil quickly put on his headphones before Dante could get another word out.

He pushed the button to roll down his window, he was in desperate need of fresh air. Resting his head in his hand, Virgil looked at the trees passing by in disdain, he and Dante knew all too well that he’d rather be at home.

The sun was setting and everything around had a nice warm, orange glow. It was calming but still not enough to make Virgil any less annoyed by his situation.

Dante kept stealing glances at Virgil, even though he knew Virgil was not willing to talk. He was getting real tired of it, but he couldn’t say that he blamed Virgil for acting like this.

He knew it wasn’t easy for Virgil, they always struggled together. With their parents, with their school, with almost everything. Dante always managed to make the best out of a bad situation for Virgil’s sake and keep his head high.

But Virgil wasn’t Dante, not in the slightest. Virgil wasn’t exactly what one would call an optimist, but Dante supposed he wasn’t either, so no fault there really.

Dante remained focused on the road despite being hyper aware of how miserable Virgil seemed to be. 

He occupied his mind with something else by reading the signs on the side of the road to get a sense of where they were. 

Dante could have sworn they had been in that cramped car for hours, and they probably had been, he was itching to get out and move.

So when a road sign informed Dante that their destination was only ten minutes away, he was thrilled. He smiled and began to tap his fingers on the steering wheel, becoming a bit antsy.

However, his smile fell again, he knew he needed to talk to Virgil. 

“Virgil,” His tone was calm and quiet.

No response. Dante’s brows furrowed.

“Virgil,” this time, his tone was firm and louder.

Still no response. Dante sighed and nudged Virgil’s arm.

“Virgil, please don’t ignore me.”

Hesitantly, Virgil turned to Dante with a blank expression, expectantly waiting for him to continue speaking.

“I know this is hard on you, but you really need to listen to me when I say that everything’s going to be alright,” Dante said, encouragingly.

Virgil raised an eyebrow at him then scowled, “You know, for someone who lies so much, you’d think you’d be better at it by now.”

Dante frowned deeply, “Don’t talk to me that way.”

Instantly, Virgil’s expression changed to that of regret and his tone of voice became soft and hushed, “Sorry…”

“You know why this is happening, and I understand why you’re upset but sometimes change is necessary,” Dante’s tone wasn’t completely cold, but he couldn’t help it, “Things don’t automatically become better, we’ve worked hard to get here!”

“I know! You’ve told me a million times, I don’t want to hear it again,” Virgil spat.

There was a deafening silence in the car, neither knew what to say. The wind began to pick up and it’s all Virgil could hear. 

Until Dante cleared his throat, trying to get Virgil’s attention once more.

“I’m sorry for snapping at you, that wasn’t my intention…” Dante tread lightly, knowing Virgil’s emotions were all mixed up at the moment.

“I just don’t know how to get through to you,” Dante continued.

Virgil scoffed, “No one really knows.”

Dante responded with a laugh, “Wow, that was edgy, even for you.”

“Well, you know me…” Virgil gave a half smile, still not completely in the mood.

Dante gave Virgil a look, Virgil wasn’t sure if it was remorse? Pity? Anger? Confusion? Dante was hard to read sometimes.

Quickly, Dante turned away, his attention to the road. 

“Say, I know I haven’t told you much about our new place so maybe that’s where some of the anxiety is coming from, huh?”

Virgil seemed almost embarrassed, “I— I’m not anxious at all,” he protested.

Dante shot him a quick glare, “You’re anxious, I can tell. You’re _always_ anxious.”

Virgil pouted and crossed his arms, kicking his feet up on the dashboard lazily. “Fine! But if this town doesn’t celebrate Halloween every single day of the year then I don’t wanna hear it.”

Dante raised an eyebrow and grinned, “Don’t kick your feet up, what if we crash and die?” 

“Dee!” Virgil exclaimed, hitting him lightly on the arm. 

Quickly, Virgil brought his feet down, a little embarrassed at his outburst.

“What? I’m frankly offended that you don’t have faith in me, I’m the best driver around.”

“You have a lying problem!” Virgil shot back.

“Ouch, I’m wounded, Virgil.” Dante deadpanned, and in turn, Virgil let out a small laugh.

Dante heard it and immediately smiled, “There we go.”

“Whatever,” Virgil looked away but kept his headphones off, he had a feeling that Dante wasn’t done talking. 

Virgil reclined back in his seat, breathing in and out deeply, trying to calm his rising anxiety, as he had now realized how close they were to their destination. 

It was a breathing trick that Dante had told Virgil about and it usually always helped, he wasn’t sure if it was the breathing itself or the sentiment of knowing Dante cared enough to help him get through his panic attacks when no one else would.

“The town is very quaint,” Dante pulled Virgil out of his thoughts.

“Oh yeah?” Virgil responded, closing his eyes yet still listening, “You remember what I said?”

“No, they do not celebrate Halloween all year,” Dante clarified.

“Boooring!” Virgil sighed in annoyance.

“It is not! The town is very pretty, seemingly has good neighborhoods, and our house is right by the beach!” 

“Beach house, huh? Well, why didn’t you just say so? That sure is wonderful for me, Virgil, who has never left his house a day in his life to go to the beach,” Virgil’s words dripped sarcasm.

“Well, whatever, Virgil, I really have no idea what’s going to convince you that this place is going to be great,” Dante pouted like a little kid.

“You could have lied and told me they celebrated Halloween all year,” Virgil murmured, shrugging.

“Drop the Halloween stuff, emo!” 

Virgil laughed again, much more prominent this time, “Then what’s the fucking point?”

Dante shot a death glare at Virgil. 

“God, sorry _Mom_ , I know, ‘Watch your language!’” Virgil groaned as he mocked Dante.

“I do _not_ sound like that!” Dante said, his face contorting into that of disgust. 

Dante sighed in fake annoyance, “If you’re really so adamant about this Halloween stuff, the house we’re moving into hasn’t been lived in for over fifty years and was built centuries ago. No one wanted to buy it.”

“Ten bucks says it’s haunted!” 

“Deal! Only ‘cause I know I’m right. There’s no way it’s haunted.”

“You wish! I’m gonna make you eat your wor—“ Virgil stopped in the middle of his sentence as the car turned a corner and revealed an almost hidden town. Virgil couldn’t say it was the best around but he could agree it was pretty, he could see almost the entirety of it from up on the hill they were currently driving down. 

Birds flew by and Virgil could swear he could hear the waves from the ocean already. 

“Is this… is this it?” Virgil asked, a bit surprised.

Nodding, Dante smiled, “Told you it was pretty.”

Virgil waved a dismissive hand at his brother and poked his entire torso out the car window to get a better look. This wasn’t the first time he’s done this and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Virgil enjoyed the nice breeze blow past as they drove.

“Virgil! Get back in here now! Are you crazy?” Dante shouted, clear concern in his voice.

Virgil snorted and withdrew from the window, back into his seat, “Probably.”

Dante sighed, exasperated, “What am I ever going to do with you?”

“Jokes on you! You’re stuck with me!” Virgil stuck his tongue out childishly.

“What are you? Five? I thought I raised you to make better insults,” Dante rolled his eyes, though there didn’t seem to be any malice behind the action.

Virgil just laughed and sat back in his chair, sighing softly. There was no way in hell that Virgil would ever admit that Dante lifted his mood tremendously, however, there was no denying that Virgil was in a significantly better mood than before. 

“God, are we there yet? I need to move, like right now, or else I’ll _die_ ,” Virgil faced Dante with the most serious expression he could muster, “do you want me to _die_ , Dee?” 

“Well, if you’re so antsy to get out, you might as well open that door and tuck and roll,” Dante suggested, with a hint of annoyance, “you can walk the rest of the way for all I care.”

Virgil grinned devilishly and placed a hand on the car door handle, “Well, if you _insist_ …”

“No!” Dante shouted and quickly pressed a button to lock all the doors.

Virgil cackled, Dante loved picking on and teasing him but when Virgil is able to get him back, it’s the most fun in the world. 

“You think I’m dumb enough to jump out of a moving car? Clearly you don’t have as much confidence in your parenting skills as I thought!” 

Dante glared at his brother, though he couldn’t be too mad, he sort of did walk into that one.

Sighing, Dante pulled into a driveway and put the car in park, “We’re here.”

Virgil was quiet as he stumbled out of the car and stepped into the sand. He stared down in disgust, that was something he was really going to need to get used to. He was going to go through hell trying to clean off the sand later.

Rolling his eyes, Virgil examined his new surroundings. The first thing that caught his attention was the house they had parked in front of. It was a plain white house with a pretty standard looking design. It didn’t look like anything special aside from the fact that the paint was chipped and pretty much everything looked worn down. 

In front of the house was a deck and stairs leading up to it. Virgil groaned, if he had to spend his life here going up and down stairs every time he needed to get into his house then he was just going to walk right into the ocean and keep walking until he was never seen again. Dante would call him dramatic, but he would call himself reasonable.

Virgil then turned his attention to the three other houses lined up beside his own. They were relatively spaced apart, enough so that Virgil would probably never have to come in contact with his neighbors ever, not that he planned to talk to them anyway. 

He noticed that the other three houses looked fairly kept up and clean, which made Virgil raise an eyebrow at his own house in suspicion. However, Virgil just laughed it off and let him feel accomplished that he totally won the bet. He just had a knack for sensing that kind of stuff, he guessed.

“Virgil!” Dante snapped a few times to get his attention. 

“What? You break your back trying to pick up a box, old man?” Virgil teased.

Dante gave a mock offended gasp, “I’m two years older than you! Have some respect, you brat child.”

“Brat child, huh? Sounds about right.” 

“ _Anyway_ ,” Dante quickly changed the subject, “I just got off the phone with the moving van and they said they wouldn’t be here until tomorrow so we’re just gonna have to make do until then.”

Nodding silently, Virgil grabbed a box of his own stuff from the backseat of the car. Their car was small, so they couldn’t exactly fit too many boxes inside, even though they didn’t have many personal belongings in the first place.

“Let’s just unload the car for now, at least we have sleeping bags,” Dante commented, trying to lighten the mood. 

Virgil watched as Dante hurried up the stairs with two boxes in hand, probably as a way to show off to Virgil. To this day, Virgil still had no idea why ‘old man’ affected his ego so much.

Virgil rolled his eyes and prepared for his journey up the stairs before a strangled yell stopped him dead in his tracks.

“What the hell?” Virgil asked himself as he turned to the scene currently unraveling at the end of the beach by the third house down.

He watched in confusion as two teenagers worriedly surrounded two other teenagers who looked as if they were about to fight. Virgil couldn’t make out the details of any of their faces and he certainly didn’t want to stay long enough to find out what was happening. 

In a split second, one of the teenagers tackled the other to the ground with another yell. Virgil decided to get out of there and hurry up the stairs, into his house, out of sight.

Dante raised an eyebrow as Virgil entered, “It took you that long to bring up one box?”

Virgil just set down the box and shrugged, “It’s all the stuff I have.”

Dante didn’t question it and nodded in understanding. He hurried out the door and soon came back with two sleeping bags.

“You must be exhausted, so am I,” Dante said as he unrolled the sleeping bags and set them up on the floor. He didn’t seem to notice the commotion outside as he didn’t comment on it.

“That depends, you mean emotionally or physically?” Virgil questioned, though it was mostly rhetorical.

“Who cares, we’re finally here!” Dante seemed genuinely happy, giving Virgil a wide smile. 

“Yeah…” Virgil answered awkwardly, no enthusiasm in his tone.

Later that night, Virgil lay restless in his sleeping bag. He couldn’t help but stew in his own thoughts instead of sleeping. His mind was racing and frankly, the floor wasn’t comfortable to lay on.

Virgil felt antsy and unwell. He had no idea what to expect anymore and that scared him to no end. Back home, he had a routine and he stuck to it, but then everything got messed up and now Virgil was here, lying on a stupid wooden floor.

He couldn’t help but let a tear slip from his eye. Virgil shifted to look at Dante who fell asleep easily, he envied that skill. 

Virgil tried to focus his thoughts on Dante instead of on any anxiety inducing ones, and surprisingly, it worked. 

It wasn’t perfect, a few tears still slipped from his eyes and his breathing was a bit ragged but all Virgil wanted to do was sleep and that was his only priority at the moment, and that was what he’d do, whether his anxiety liked it or not. He’d deal with it in the morning.


End file.
